Rashad Butler
Rashad is a dedicated, disciplined high schooler. Although his true passion is art, he joins ROTC to appease his father. One Friday night, Rashad enters the neighborhood convenience store to buy a bag of chips. He is accused of stealing and is beaten up by a police officer, Paul Galluzzo. Rashad is hospitalized for the injuries he sustains. The attack sparks a debate in his community about the way police treat unarmed Black youth. Rashad is thrown into the spotlight even as he is coping with the physical and emotional pain of the attack. Over the course of the novel, Rashad finds his voice, standing up against police brutality and racism.
Quinn Collins
Quinn is a white high-school senior who plays on the school’s basketball team. He feels immense pressure to be a responsible son, and to succeed in both academics and sports. Eager to escape his responsibilities for a night, Quinn stops by a convenience store with his friends to buy beer illegally. There he witnesses a police officer beating Rashad. The event shakes him, especially after he realizes that the police officer is a close family friend, Paul Galluzzo. At first, he tries to distance himself by arguing that the beating is not his problem. However, as his school and community grapple with the fallout, Quinn slowly comes to realize that what he saw was an act of police brutality and racism. With this realization, Quinn feels a moral obligation to stand up for Rashad, even though he may be accused of betraying his mentor and friend, Paul Gullazzo.
Paul Galluzzo
Paul is a police officer in Springfield. He is large and can be physically intimidating. He’s Guzzo’s older brother and, after Quinn’s father died, acted as an older brother and mentor to Quinn. Paul is also the police officer who wrongly accuses Rashad of stealing and attacking a white woman in a convenience store. Paul beats up Rashad so badly that Rashad has to spend six days in the hospital recovering. Paul is adamant throughout the novel that he has done nothing wrong.
Rashad’s father, David Butler
Rashad's father is a strict, military man. He represents an older generation that believes that hard work, discipline, and being “respectable” is the only way for a Black man to survive in America. He pushes this idea on his sons, wanting them to follow his path of joining ROTC and the Army like he did. Rashad’s father often clashes with his son Spoony who holds very different ideas about how to move through the world as a Black man. Rashad’s father is a former police officer. After Rashad’s attack, his father confides in Rashad that he left the force due to a similar misunderstanding involving racial profiling in which he shot and paralyzed an innocent Black teen. While he often defends police officers, Rashad’s father surprises everyone by showing up to the protest to support Rashad.
Spoony
Spoony is Rashad’s older brother. He is unapologetically Black: he has dreads, models his style after nineties hip-hop, and openly talks about the racism that Black people face. Rashad looks up to his brother, but Spoony constantly clashes with their father who disapproves of Spoony’s job at UPS, the way he dresses, and his politics. Unlike Rashad, Spoony does not try to please their father or live up to his ideas of respectability. Spoony immediately believes Rashad when he learns what the police officer did to him. He sends the story and video of Rashad’s attack to the news, making sure the issue gets national attention. Spoony is angry. He wants to fight for his brother and all other Black people who face brutality at the hands of the police. Spoony helps the students organize a protest as a means of achieving this goal.
Guzzo
Guzzo is one of Quinn’s best friends; they play together on the school basketball team. Guzzo is physically very big, just like his older brother Paul Galluzzo. Guzzo and Quinn are together the night Quinn witnesses Paul attack Rashad, however Guzzo does not see it happen. Guzzo adamantly defends his brother’s actions, saying his brother was just doing his job. He tries to pressure Quinn to remain loyal, and feels confused and betrayed when Quinn voices his opposition to Paul's actions. Tension continues between the two friends throughout the novel, and Guzzo ultimately punches Quinn after basketball practice, ending their friendship.
Jill
Jill is Guzzo and Paul’s cousin. She is outspoken and defends herself. Jill hosts the party Friday night that both Rashad and Quinn plan on going to with their friends. Quinn initially has a crush on Jill, but over the course of the novel they end up developing a friendship. Quinn confides to Jill that he witnessed Paul attack Rashad. They continue to rely on each other throughout the novel, as they wrestle with how Paul’s actions change how they feel about him. Both face pushback from family and friends for not remaining loyal to Paul. Jill pushes Quinn to face what happened: watching the video of the attack, thinking about how racism plays a role in Paul’s actions, and connecting this singular event to broader systemic issues. Jill is one of the main organizers of the student protest.
English
English and Rashad have been friends since they were children. English is handsome, cool, and the captain of the basketball team. He feels constrained by his basketball coach’s ban on talking about Rashad’s attack, and ends up defying his coach by going to the protest for Rashad. English’s conversation with Quinn regarding Paul beating Rashad is one of the factors that ends up convincing Quinn to speak out.
Carlos
Carlos is one of Rashad’s close friends. The two share a bond over art; Rashad draws and Carlos does graffiti. After Rashad’s attack, Carlos graffitis a message at the front of their high school that says, “Rashad is absent again today.” This message becomes a rallying cry for students and the community against police brutality and is turned into a hashtag on social media.
Jessica Butler
Jessica is Rashad’s mother, and she often acts as a mediator between Rashad’s father and the rest of the family. Loving and caring, she believes Rashad is innocent and is furious about how Rashad was treated by the police officer. She decides to file a lawsuit against Paul Galluzzo and hires a lawyer. While initially nervous about the idea of a protest, she ends up supporting Rashad and marching with him.
Willy
Willy is Quinn’s younger brother who, in seventh grade, is treated like the baby of the family. Willy is less interested in sports and prefers to play video games. After their father died, their mother started working the night shift. Therefore, Quinn is often responsible for his younger brother: helping with meals and homework, going to his soccer games, and taking him to friends’ houses. Willy looks up to his older brother, playing better at his soccer game once he realizes that Quinn is there watching. Although Quinn is often annoyed by Willy, he loves him deeply.
Coach Carney
Coach Carney is the coach of the basketball team at Springfield Central High School. He is determined to lead the team to win the basketball championship. After Rashad’s attack, Coach Carney is worried about political divisions on the team, telling them they need to be unified. He forbids students from talking about or taking action in the political debate surrounding Rashad’s attack. He lectures Quinn about this after Quinn wears a T-shirt to school that says he is going to the protest.
Mrs. Fitzgerald
Mrs. Fitzgerald is an older Black woman who works in the hospital gift shop. She meets Rashad and goes along with his story that he got injured in a car accident, even though she knows the truth. Later in the week, Mrs. Fitzgerald visits Rashad in his hospital room. She gives him advice on facing his fears and encourages him to attend the protest.
